"SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- A disease that rots the shells of lobsters is threatening the Northeast’s $20-million lobster industry, scientists said Wednesday.

The disease, decimating lobsters since the mid-1990s, could mean new regulations for fishermen already struggling with a bad economy, said Mark Gibson, deputy chief of the state Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.

'Shell disease escalated in 1997, exploded rapidly, and shows no signs of abating,' said Gibson, who spoke at the ninth annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium at the University of Rhode Island.

The disease affects about 30 percent of New England’s lobster population."